Sawmill.



No. 739,045. ,PATENTED SEPT. 15, 1903. T. S. WILKIN.

SAWMILL. APPLIOATION nun SEPT. 19. 1902.

H0 MODEL.

No. 739,045. B-ATENTED SEPT. 15, 1903.

T. s. WILKIN.

.SAWMIL'L.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 18,1902.

N0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES Patented September 15,1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

SAWMILL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 739,045, dated September 15, 1903.

A Application filed September 19, 1902. Serial No- 123,998. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THEODORE S. WILKIN, residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of .Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Sawmills, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in sawmills,-and involves improvements especially in gang-saw mills whereby presser-rolls for holding logs, slabs, or other material in position while being fed to the saw or saws and the means for actuating the rolls are so mounted as to be removable or to be withdrawn from in front of the saw or saws, thereby giving unobstructed opportunity for getting at the saw or saws for repairs or other purposes, and as gang-saw mills are subject to great strain under the rapid reciprocating motion of the saws through one or more logs, whereby great and undesirable vibration is caused in the mill, too frequently resulting in the breaking of the frame or other parts of the mill, I have also made improvements in the frame, in connection with the improvements just enumerated, whereby the mill asa whole is greatly benefited. As above stated, my improved construction is especially adapted for use with gang-saw mills, and I have illustrated it in connection with such portions of a gang-saw mill as are necessary to properly illustrate the invention and its use. The invention may, however, be employed with other forms of mill, and I do not wish to limit it to gang-saw mills.

The invention consists of the mechanism, its parts and combinations of parts, as herein described and claimed, or the equivalents thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a fragment of the frame of a gangsaw mill and of a gang-saw frame audits saws mounted in the mill-frame having my improved construction therein and in connection therewith, showing its form and arrangement and its relation to related features of the conform, as shown in the drawings.

a mill as are shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the frame on line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

The frame A may be of any suitable form and size; but to provide against the vibration and breakage liable to occur in gangsaw mills as heretofore constructed I provide a frame, or at least the upright side members thereof, of cast-iron in hollow or box-like This novel construction in gang-saw mills obviates the vibration or swaying of the mill and reduces breakage toa minimum. The gang-saw frame Bis mounted so as to be reciprocable vertically in suitable ways 0 O thereforon the frame. The saws D are mounted and stretched in the frame in the usual manner of gang saws. Rollers E E, having their bearings in the frame A, are located one in front and the other at the rear of the gang-saw frame in a plane substantially horizontal with the lower extremity of the saws when the gang-saw frame is at the limit of its travel upwardly. These rollers E E serve for supporting and assisting in feeding the log, slab, or other material to and past the gang-saws and are complemented by rollers above the log, slab, or other material, hereinafter to be described.

For pressure on a log, slab, timber, or other material while being sawed complementary to and adapted to hold the log, slab, ormaterial firmly and steadily against the pressure-resisting and feed rollers E E there are opposing presser-rollers, provided both at the front and at the rear of the saw or saws, and these may be each a roller as long as the rollers E or preferably may be in shorter complementary rollers 3 3. Each roller is mounted in a head or yoke 4.-, slidable toward and from the plane of the rollers E E on ways 5 5 therefor on an auxiliary rigid frame 6. A steam-cylinder 7 is provided for shifting each of the yokes 4 reciprocably and for holding the roller 3 yieldingly up to its work. This steam-cylinder is mounted fixedly on the rigid frame 6 and is provided with a piston having a stem 8, which stem is pivoted at its outer end to the roller-yoke 4. As shown in the drawings,

struction. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of my two rollers 3 3 and their yokes 4, with actu- 5o improved construction and the same parts of ating steam-cylinders 7, are provided as complementary to one of the rollers E; but, if desired, either one or more than two rollers may be thus employed as complementary to each roller E. However, in gang-saw mills it is advisable to employ at least two such rollers 3 3 as complementary to each roller E, because it often happens that two logs of different diameters are fed to the saws at the same time, and in such case each of the rollers 3 will take care of a log, the construction being such that each roller acts independentlyof the other in its capability of holding a log, slab, or material to the complementary rollers E. Of course a roller 3 will be required as complementary to each roller E, or, in other words, one roller 3 will be required in front of the saws and another roller 3 at the rear of the saws. The ad vantage of using steam or other expansive agent for holding the rollers 3 up to their work is great, especially because of the substantially equal but readily-yielding pressure that can at all times be secured by the use of such agent. To permit of the removal of these rollers 3 and the steam-cylinders 7 from the vicinity of the saws and the frames by which the saws are mounted in the mill-frame, both at the front and at the rear of the saws, the auxiliary frames 6 are severally secured detachably or by hinge connection to the main frame A. The means for thus securing the auxiliary frames to the main frame which are'advisably employed consist of cars 9 9 at each side edge of each frame 6, which ears severally enter a socket therefor in the frame A and are secured therein by a removable pin 10. By this construction the auxiliary frame 6 is readily secured to the mill-frame A so as to be rigid therewith and at the same time is .readily removable therefrom bodily by withdrawing the several pins 10, or, which is a preferable form of use, the pins 10 at one edge, at the right in Fig. 1, may be used as the pintles of hinges in the same axial line, whereby the auxiliary frame when released at the other side edge may be swung outwardly away from in front of the main frame, so as to give ready access to the saw or saws and the saw-frame.

Each of the cylinders 7 is provided with a valve -chamber 11 of any approved form adapted for admitting the motive agent, advisably steam, to the cylinder at one or the other side of the piston at will, and an induction-pipe 12 leads from a source of supply to the valve-chambers of the cylinders on each auxiliary frame 6, and an eduction-pipe 13 leads from the same cylinders. These pipes 12 and 13 are each provided with a rotatable coupling 14, disposed in the axis of the pintles 10 of the hinges of the frame 6 at that edge of the frame, so that the pipes, being capable of swinging at these joints, thereby accommodate themselves to the swinging of the auxiliary frame 6. The couplings 14 are also advisably made detachable, so that the pipes can be disconnected at this point for permitting of the removal of the auxiliary frame 6- bodily from the sawmill-frame. A throttle-valve lever 15, (purposely omitted in Fig. 2,) mounted on the auxiliary frame 6 and connected by a rod 16 to the respective valves of the chambers ll'of the steam-cylinders on each auxiliary frame, is located, preferably, at that edge of the frame which is releasable from the main frame, so as to be convenient of access to the attendant. It

will be understood that it is only necessary to pull out the pins 10 at this edge of the frame 6 to release it from the main frame at that edge, so that the auxiliary frame can be swung freely on the hinges at its other edge away from the main frame.

It will be understood that by the construction herein described the rollers 3 3 can be readily moved by means of the steam-cylinders 7 away from the rollers E to permit of the ready placing of logs, slabs, or material between the opposing rollers and that then the rollers 3 can be moved down to the logs, slabs, or material, holding them in position steadily against the rollers E E, the rollers 3 being capable of and adapted to yield and return, following the inequalities or unequal thicknesses of the logs, slabs, or material as they pass the saw or saws.

My improved mechanism has been shown and described in connection with a verticallydisposed gang-saw mill, but may be applied to a mill having a single saw or to other forms of mill where complementary pressure on the material being sawed is desired-as, for instance,in resaw-machines. Also otherequivalent forms of support for the logs or material may be employed in place of the rollers E E, with which my improved construction may be employed.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. In asawmill, a main frame, an auxiliary frame, a roller and its yoke mounted reciprocably in the auxiliary frame, a steam-cylinder fixed on the auxiliary frame and provided with a reciprocable piston connected to said yoke and adapted to reciprocate said yoke and roller, steam-pipes on said auxiliary frame leading to said cylinder, and hinges on said auxiliary frame and swivel-joints in said pipes in the line of the axis of said hinges securing said auxiliary frame on said main frame so as to be capable of being swung away therefrom.

2. In a sawmill, the combination of a main frame, a pressure-resisting means adapted to support the log being sawed, a complementary movable and yielding presser device, a steam-cylinder provided with a reciprocable piston having a stem connected to and actuating the presser device, means for introducing steam at will at either side of the piston, and an auxiliary frame on which the movable presser device and the steam-cylinder are mounted, the auxiliary frame being se- I inders for actuating the rollers on the auxileured removably to the main frame. iary frame. 10

3. In combination in a gang-saw mill, a. In testimony whereof I affix my signature frame provided with means for supporting in presence of two Witnesses. I

logs thereon for sawing, a gang of saws reeip- THEODORE S. WILKIN. rocable on the frame, an auxiliary frame se- Witnesses: cured removably to the main frame, and a C. T. BENEDICT,

roller or rollers and a steam cylinder or cyl- ANNA V. FAUST. 

